


Skellytum

by firefly124



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: F/M, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-10
Updated: 2011-06-10
Packaged: 2017-10-20 07:17:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/210153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefly124/pseuds/firefly124
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A moment in the Barrayaran garden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skellytum

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [AdventDrabbles](http://asylums.insanejournal.com/adventdrabbles/) 2007 to the prompt "snowy tree."

She stood in the garden where it had all started, snow falling lightly all around her, and wondered where the time had gone.

Perhaps it hadn’t all quite started here. The skellytum before her was a descendant of the one Miles had rescued on Komarr. There were days when she wondered quite what to make of the symbolism of that. One of Tien’s last acts of spite towards her now a centerpiece of the garden Miles had used to lure her into his orbit.

And now the children were all grown and gone, and the skellytum that had been a root fragment of that bonsai-skellytum required pruning several times a year to keep it from overwhelming the rest of the garden.

The swaths of terraforming on the South Continent that she oversaw were her masterpieces, but this garden and this tree held pieces of her heart in ways she could never quite articulate, though somehow Miles seemed to understand. Or at least, he always had. A tear left an icy trace along her cheek.

Wiping it away, she turned to go back inside Vorkosigan House. The children would be home soon, rushing variously from ship duty, a study year on Beta, and an interstellar freighter. She hoped it would be soon enough. Meanwhile, she wanted to savor what little alone time she and Miles had left.


End file.
